Information about AI from the News, Publications, and Conferences

If you are looking for an answer to the question What is Artificial Intelligence? and you only have a minute, then here's the definition the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence offers on its home page: "the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines."

However, if you are fortunate enough to have more than a minute, then please get ready to embark upon an exciting journey exploring AI (but beware, it could last a lifetime) …

The MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) convened professional data scientists, academic researchers, and students from a variety of disciplines for the third annual daylong Women in Data Science (WiDS) conference in Cambridge. WiDS Cambridge is one of many global satellite events of the WiDS conference at Stanford University, where attendees join a global community of data science researchers and practitioners. The conference is open to anyone interested in data science, but strives especially to create opportunities for women in the field to showcase their work and network with each other. "I think WiDS is a great opportunity to bring together women at all professional levels -- students, postdocs, faculty, and professionals in industry -- who are working in data science, building community, and learning from a wide variety of perspectives," said Stefanie Jegelka, an IDSS affiliate faculty member with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). Jegelka is an MIT WiDS planning committee member who also gave a talk exploring the properties of neural networks, focusing on ResNet architecture and neural networks for graphs.

As part of its continued mission to help build a better world, MIT is establishing the Alana Down Syndrome Center, an innovative new research endeavor, technology development initiative, and fellowship program launched with a $28.6 million gift from Alana Foundation, a nonprofit organization started by Ana Lucia Villela of São Paulo, Brazil. In addition to multidisciplinary research across neuroscience, biology, engineering, and computer science labs, the gift will fund a four-year program with MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation called "Technology to Improve Ability," in which creative minds around the Institute will be encouraged and supported in designing and developing technologies that can improve life for people with different intellectual abilities or other challenges. The Alana Down Syndrome Center, based out of MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, will engage the expertise of scientists and engineers in a research effort to increase understanding of the biology and neuroscience of Down syndrome. The center will also provide new training and educational opportunities for early career scientists and students to become involved in Down syndrome research. Together, the center and technology program will work to accelerate the generation, development, and clinical testing of novel interventions and technologies to improve the quality of life for people with Down syndrome.

Oceanographers studying the physics of the global ocean have long found themselves facing a conundrum: Fluid dynamical balances can vary greatly from point to point, rendering it difficult to make global generalizations. Factors like the wind, local topography, and meteorological exchanges make it difficult to compare one area to another. To add to the complexity, one would have to analyze billions of data points for numerous parameters -- temperature, salinity, velocity, how things change with depth, whether there is a trend present -- to pinpoint what physics are most dominant in a given region. "You would have to look at an overwhelming number of different global maps and mentally match them up to figure out what matters most where," says Maike Sonnewald, a postdoc working in the MIT Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) and a member of the EAPS Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate (PAOC). Sonnewald, who has a background in physical oceanography and data science, uses computers to reveal connections and patterns in the ocean that would otherwise be beyond human capability.

Taking a cue from biological cells, researchers from MIT, Columbia University, and elsewhere have developed computationally simple robots that connect in large groups to move around, transport objects, and complete other tasks. This so-called "particle robotics" system -- based on a project by MIT, Columbia Engineering, Cornell University, and Harvard University researchers -- comprises many individual disc-shaped units, which the researchers call "particles." The particles are loosely connected by magnets around their perimeters, and each unit can only do two things: expand and contract. That motion, when carefully timed, allows the individual particles to push and pull one another in coordinated movement. On-board sensors enable the cluster to gravitate toward light sources.

Back in 2016, the current Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer revealed that his interest in the managerial aspect of the beautiful game came from a video game. Having led an illustrious career as a United striker, famously the super-sub who scored the winning goal in the 1999 Champion's League final, it was Solksjaer's experience with team sim Football Manager that encouraged him to continue a football career after he hung up his boots. He's not the only gamer who ever discovered a real-world passion through playing. Games can often offer a window on to other careers as well as other worlds, and sometimes inspire people to explore options they'd never considered before. Here, three video-game fans explain how their favourite games guided their real-life careers.

Microsoft Teams is moving ahead in its gradual replacement of Skype for Business, which was once Microsoft's go-to solution for collaborating via video or text. On Tuesday Microsoft announced several new collaborative features that lean toward business use, especially for those who work in collaborative environments at an office. One of the flagship features--background blurring for remote or home workers--has been beefed up with the ability to select a custom background. Other improvements include better whiteboarding, in both virtual spaces and the real world. When Microsoft Teams launched two years ago this week, Microsoft pitched it as a collaborative messaging environment that would compete with Slack.

Can Microsoft Word read to me? Yes, it can. The Speak feature was incorporated into Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, etc.) back in version 2003. It was called Text to Speech (TTS) then, and it functioned much the same as it does now. Fortunately, it's a very simple procedure to set up and use, so you can get started immediately. Press Ctrl A to select the entire document.

If Apple's strategy this week is to build excitement for next week's "Show time" event, then it's doing a bang-up job. Following Monday's iPads and Tuesday's iMacs, Apple updated another popular product today with the launch of the second-generation AirPods that bring a new chip, new features, a new case, and more convenience. The new AirPods look exactly like the first-generation model, but include several key enhancements. The biggest is the addition of a new H1 chip, which Apple says was "developed specifically for headphones, delivers performance efficiencies, faster connect times, more talk time and the convenience of hands-free'Hey Siri.'" That means you no longer need to tap your ear to get Siri's attention.

Android users in the EU will soon be offered a choice of browsers and alternative search engines on their devices, Google announced on Tuesday. The announcement is unsurprising, given the European Commission (EC) slapped Google with a record $5 billion fine in July 2018 for stifling browser and search engine competition in the EU. SEE ALSO: Google's Emma Haruka Iwao breaks Pi world record In a blog post, Google's SVP of Global Affairs Kent Walker said the company will "do more to ensure that Android phone owners know about the wide choice of browsers and search engines available to download to their phones." Specifically, owners of both existing and new Android devices will be asked which browser and search apps they want to use. Walker points out that Android users have "always been able to install any search engine or browser," but there's a difference between having Google's search engine and Chrome browser pre-installed as default and just letting users find alternatives on their own, and actively providing customers with a choice.

We search for great deals on tech gear all day, so we were excited to find an awesome sale price on Google WiFi mesh routers at Nordstrom -- that is until we noticed that it was listed as a "men's accessory." Google WiFi's breadcrumbs read: Home / Men / Accessories / All Men's Accessories After scouring the list of women's accessories, Google WiFi was nowhere to be found. What we did find were watches, jewelry, bags, and a handful of headphones. In addition to Google WiFi, Nordstrom includes a Google Home base, Nest security camera, and the Ring video doorbell in the men's accessories category. Again, from what we can tell, none of these appear in the women's section.